Mice and rats are ubiquitous creatures who have plagued mankind since humans began storing food millennia ago. The rodents' intelligence at times appears to approach our own, while their reproductive rate far exceeds ours. As man has proliferated so have mice and rats. It is estimated that they currently consume or contaminate $2,000,000,000 worth of grain a year in the U.S. alone. While our efforts to control their numbers at grain storage facilities have had only marginal success, we have been able to achieve a degree of success in our dwellings by using the conventional mouse trap exemplified in patents such as expired U.S Pat. Nos. 1,464,559 and 1,250,022.
Such conventional mousetraps include a spring-biased striking element comprising a striker bar which is retained in a cocked position by a trigger member. The trigger member has bait placed thereon, or disposed proximate thereto, so that a mouse or rat attracted to the bait trips the trigger member, releasing the striker bar which under the influence of a powerful coil spring dispatches the mouse or rat within microseconds. Despite their vaunted intelligence, mice and rates have been unable to resist bait placed on these traps.
In addition, many people find dead mice rather repugnant and would rather neither touch nor run the risk of touching a deceased mouse when emptying a trap, so they throw away the entire trap rather than releasing the dead mouse from the trap.
The patent literature includes a host of mousetraps and numerous mousetraps which utilize housings in combination with trapping mechanisms. Of particular interest with respect to the instant, invention is U.S. Pat. No. 2,059,937 which issued to Ellis in 1936. Ellis discloses a semicircular housing formed by a bottom, sides and a semicircular cover. Within the housing of Ellis is disposed an ordinary mousetrap having a base and a spring-actuated striker bar. The spring element is retained by a latch when in the cocked position. It is moved to the cocked position by a lever pivoted to the outside of the housing and having a portion projecting through an arcuate slot in the side wall of the housing to engage the striker bar. With the Ellis patent, convenient access to the baiting station is not provided. Consequently, the baiting station cannot be easily baited nor the deceased mouse easily removed from the trap.
Other patents of possible interest in that they utilize housings in combination with traps are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,306,370; 4,127,958; 4,688,348; 4,557,067; 2,803,918; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,684,553. These patents do not take advantage of the proven configuration of conventional mousetrap mechanisms such as the mechanisms exemplified in expired U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,248,944; 2,247,652; 2,544,475, 2,517,928; 2,616,211; 2,637,932; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,640,293, which mechanisms are incorporated at least in part in such unexpired patents as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,711,049; 4,297,805; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,595 to Kness et. al.
In view of the aforementioned considerations, there is a need for a new and improved way to employ the advantages of current mousetraps while minimizing the hazards and unpleasantness associated therewith.